Read More

It's passed between them through barking, sneezing and coughing but no owner has ever been thought to be vulnerable.

That could now be about to change after a study identified dog flu viruses that had first been passed from birds to pigs.

The process has been likened to the H1N1 'Swine flu' pandemic of 2009 - which killed nearly 300,000 people around the world.

(Image: Getty)

Professor Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, of the Global Health & Emerging Pathogens Institute at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, said having a potential carrier that "is in very close contact to humans" is a particular concern.

He said: "In our study, what we have found is another set of viruses that come from swine that are originally avian in origin, and now they are jumping into dogs and have been reassorted with other viruses in dogs.

"We now have H1N1, H3N2, and H3N8 in dogs. They are starting to interact with each other.

"This is very reminiscent of what happened in swine ten years before the H1N1 pandemic."

The study, published in the journal mBio, said they are a potential reservoir for a future pandemic because dog flu is jumping from pigs - and becoming more diverse.